The present invention relates to Internet web page browsing. In particular, the present invention relates to Internet web page browsing directed by touch tone input.
With the growth of the Internet have come very sophisticated Internet web page browsers. For example, both the Netscape Navigator(trademark) browser and the Internet Explorer(trademark) browser provide the user with the ability to move back and forth between hyperlinked web pages, view graphics, sound, and other multimedia files inline with, or separate from a web page, and interact with web sites (e.g., to provide order and billing information). Past Internet web page browsing technology, however, has relied heavily on the availability of a mouse or -keyboard shortcuts to direct the browser.
Access to the Internet is available at virtually every phone jack in the world, for example, through TCP/IP, SLIP, and/or PPP dialup services. However, because past Internet web page browsing technology relied upon the mouse and keyboard inputs, effective Internet web page browsing has only been available, in the past, at those locations where a computer is available to direct the browser. In other words, in a substantial number of situations where an individual is not in front a computer, Internet web page browsing is impossible.
One previous attempt at providing remote access to Internet web pages is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,392, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Telephonically Accessing and Navigating the Internetxe2x80x9d to Rhie et al. The Rhie patent, however, starts the user at a default web page that in turn provides links to other web pages. Thus, Rhie does not provide a convenient mechanism that allows the user to move directly to a desired web page. In addition, a system is needed that interprets and presents the most up-to-date and complex HTML structures found in web pages, newsgroup threads, and embedded links in e-mail messages to the user in an intelligible manner.
A need exists in the industry for a touch tone voice internet service that addresses the problems noted above and others previously experienced.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method for touch tone voice internet service. The method includes the steps of remotely retrieving a document including HTML tags, building a new text body based on the text in the retrieved document, converting the new text body to speech, and enumerating links in the retrieved document. The method further includes the steps of accepting touch tone input to designate one of the links as a selected link, and retrieving a second document specified by the selected link. As an example, the document may be a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document or an email message.
Preferably, the new text body includes HTML document hyperlink tag text prepended with link count text. In this fashion, the user may listen to an enumeration of links, and select one using touch tone input. The method processes many different types of HTML tags, including table, sound, hyperlink, graphic, paragraph, horizontal line, and other tags, as explained in more detail below.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a touch tone voice Internet browsing system. The browsing system includes a processing circuit, a communication interface, and a memory coupled to the processing circuit. The memory stores a computer program comprising instructions for remotely retrieving through the communication interface a text document including HTML tags, building a new text body based on the text document, converting the new text body to speech, and enumerating links in the text document. The computer program further includes instructions for accepting touch tone input to designate one of the links as a selected link, and retrieving a second document specified by the selected link.
The computer program further defines a touch tone character code comprising an at least two digit code per character. To this end, the character code may define any alphanumeric character, punctuation (e.g., xe2x80x9c.xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c/xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cxcx9cxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cxe2x88x92xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c@xe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9c_xe2x80x9d), and xe2x80x9ccancelxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ccompletionxe2x80x9d codes. As noted above, the document may be a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document or an email message.